Halloween trick, no treat

Thousands of Irish revelers left an Oct. 31 Halloween parade in Dublin dispirited when the entertainment failed to appear. Locals had come to watch one of Ireland’s theater groups put on a giant puppet parade, which was advertised on the holiday events website MySpiritHalloween.com. But when the parade failed to materialize, many attendees believed the performers had ghosted them. In fact, the theater group had never planned a parade, and the event announcement was on the Pakistan-based website by mistake. Website owner Nazir Ali told The Irish Times the error wasn’t an intentional hoax: “We are highly embarrassed and highly depressed, and very sorry.”